The UK-based insurance giant Aviva plans to transfer 2,900 employees from its third party BPO partners, EXL and WNS, to its own offshore division - Aviva Global Services, in the current calendar year, a company executive said on Friday.

Aviva, the UK's largest insurance company and the world's fifth largest, said it has successfully completed the transfer of over 1,600 employees at its Bangalore operations from Aviva-24/7 Customer to AGS on January 1.

Aviva had built the offshore BPO roles in partnership with three vendor partners -- EXL, WNS and 24/7 Customer - under the BOT (Build, Operate, Transfer) contract with them that has enabled it to ramp up rapidly and gain the 'speed to market'.

The transfer of these employees to AGS means that Aviva can avoid paying "premium" to the vendor partners, and the move has also stemmed from the fact that "the operations are now relatively stable", said AGS CEO Rajnish Virmani.

The transfers from third party BPO vendor staff to own offshore division by Aviva is seen as a first move of its kind and size in the Indian BPO industry.

"As we prepare for more of the transfers through the year, this successfully executed transfer will serve as a great learning," said Virmani.

Of the 2,900 new transfers, 300 would be moved from WNS centre in Colombo and 2,600 of WNS and EXL put together in Pune, officials said.

Terming the transfers as a "significant step" for the Indian ITeS industry, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik was quoted as saying in a Aviva statement that several other players have been waiting and watching to see how the BOT model works.